Being Good in a World of Need
Larry S. Temkin
Abstract
Ours is a rich world filled with misery. This gives rise to a pressing question: how should the well-off respond to the needy? Peter Singer famously argued that just as we have an obligation to save a drowning child, we have an obligation to support charities like Oxfam. Inspired by Singer, Effective Altruism holds that we ought to support those charities doing the most good. <italic>Being Good in a World of Need</italic> powerfully challenges these views. Drawing on many sources, Temkin illustrates many disanalogies between saving a drowning child and supporting international charities, involving: intervening agents; effects of one’s actions; corruption; responsibility; accidents versus injustice; and aid beneficiaries. These disanalogies raise complex issues requiring a pluralistic approach, rather than Effective Altruism’s monistic, “do the most good” approach. <italic>Being Good</italic> discusses: ways aid may reward corrupt leaders and incentivize disastrous policies; charities ignoring or covering up negative impacts; the ethical disaster of aid efforts in Goma; brain and character drains; difficulties in replicability or scaling up model aid projects; ethical imperialism, paternalism, autonomy, and respect; Angus Deaton’s contention that aid undermines government responsiveness; Jeffrey Sachs and the Millennium Villages Project; conflicts between individual and collective morality; fairness and responsibility; focusing on badly off <italic>people</italic> rather than <italic>countries</italic>; humanitarian versus development aid; and ways of aiding other than on-the-ground charities. <italic>Being Good</italic> reinforces Temkin’s longstanding view that, morally, the well-off can’t ignore the needy. Unfortunately, what one should do given that truth is much more complex, and murky, than most have realized.